Harold Doss, 80, former Kirkland chief of police

In the 1950s, the Doss boys used to watch their favorite airborne cowboy, Sky King, zoom across their living-room television "out of the clear blue Western sky."

He was a righteous rancher who doubled as a marshal, rode horses and always caught the bad guys.

So did the Doss boys' dad, Harold, who served as Kirkland's police chief for 14 years.

"To our family he was a hero," said his eldest son, Ron. "Like Sky King, I guess he always caught the bad guys, too."

Harold Raymond Doss, 80, died Sept. 12 of natural causes, complicated by dementia, in his Kirkland home. He was surrounded by family.

Although Mr. Doss retired from the police department nearly 30 years ago, his legacy lives on in the city that knew him best.

In 1961, after serving briefly as Bellevue's police chief, Mr. Doss was hired to head Kirkland's fledgling force. It was a tough time for the city, which then had a population of just over 4,000. The police department was recovering from a corruption scandal that resulted in the departure of all but two of the previous administration's top cops.

It was a time when the department still kept its bail money in a fishing-tackle box, and there was no set procedure to collect and monitor parking-meter funds.

Mr. Doss quickly instituted a code of ethics and training standards for new officers. He encouraged them to take university and law-enforcement courses to improve their policing skills — traditions that carry on today.

Long gone are the parking meters and tackle box.

"He was the chief who got us on the right path," said current Kirkland police Sgt. Nick Seibert, who joined the force in 1988. "He's a man of integrity, and he got us up to the standards where we needed to be."

Retired Kirkland police officer Lee Seely, who worked with Mr. Doss for eight years, remembered him as a pioneer of community policing. Mr. Doss considered himself a "servant of the people," and seemed to make himself just as available to citizens as he was to his officers, she said.

"His idea of law enforcement was service ... that we were there to serve the community," added Seely, who worked as a radio operator, secretary and officer under Mr. Doss' watch.

Born June 25, 1924, in Sumner, Mo., Mr. Doss enrolled in Missouri Valley College. But with World War II raging in two theaters, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps. He served aboard the USS Saratoga aircraft carrier, which was badly damaged in the South Pacific.

Mr. Doss was in Bremerton while the Navy nursed the ship's wounds. It was there he met and married a woman named Barnetta in the span of nine days. On Aug. 9, Mr. Doss and his wife celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

After returning from the war and working in Bremerton's shipyards, Mr. Doss joined the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office as a deputy in 1947. By age 24, he was the department's chief of detectives, a job he held until 1960.

Mr. Doss is survived by his wife, Barnetta, of Kirkland; son Ron and daughter-in-law Gayle, of Woodinville; son Rob and daughter-in-law Fran, of Kirkland; son Rick and daughter-in-law Gloria, of Kirkland; and daughter Beth Blanchard and son-in-law Kelly Blanchard, of Kirkland; as well as six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at the North Kirkland Community Center, 12421 103rd Ave., N.E., in Kirkland.

Michael Burnham: 206-464-2243 or mburnham@seattletimes.com